


Move On

by shamefulshameless



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-15 08:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11226750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shamefulshameless/pseuds/shamefulshameless
Summary: This was a complete disaster, Kala decided. She shouldn't have told Rajan that there was someone else. She should have said that she needed to find herself. She shouldn't have told him about the cluster, she should have left him, quick and dirty, and been on the next flight to Berlin with Wolfgang. That is what she should have done.





	1. Kala

**Author's Note:**

> I really have a thing for sapiens finding out about the cluster, for some reason. 
> 
> It's the 800th Sense8 fanfic on ao3 and I am weirdly proud of that? 
> 
> Also- keep on the fight for Sense8! Tweet, blog, call, mail, anything!
> 
> And vote Sense8 for best drama here:  
> http://m.eonline.com/news/860406/tv-scoop-awards-vote-for-the-best-drama-and-best-comedy-now

Kala had known this wasn't going to be easy. She'd walked into the living room knowing this would be the most impossible thing she'd ever done. But now, faced with it, it was like someone was suffocating her. How could it be this heartbreaking to leave a man she's never loved?

"Hello, my love," Rajan cooed as he noticed her standing behind the sofa. "I just walked in the door. I heard you went home early today, are you feeling unwell again?" He walked towards her, moving to press his hand to her face. She recoiled. If he touched her the way he always did, tenderly and with the purest of intention, she'd chicken out. How many times had she done that before?

At her hesitation, Rajan's smile dropped. "Kala? Are you alright?" He was concerned for her, like always. "Yes," she tried to reply, but it came out as a voiceless sort of huff. She cleared her throat. "Yes. I just- Rajan, I need to talk to you."

In her head she ran through the reasons why she had to do this, for the thousandth time:  
1\. She didn't love Rajan.  
2\. She'd never loved Rajan.  
3\. Rajan deserved someone to love him the way he loved her.  
4\. Wolfgang.  
5\. Wolfgang.  
6\. Wolfgang, who had been in Mumbai for two weeks. She couldn't keep up a full blown affair for one second longer.

She took a deep breath. "Rajan, let's sit." She led him to the sofa, but made sure she sat on the chair facing the table- no tender touches.

Kala looked squarely at Rajan. His eyes were clouded with worry. Doubt filled her again. Maybe she could do this another day, after all?

"No. You have to do it now," Wolfgang said as he appeared behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have a choice."

 

He'd been trying to get her to leave Rajan since the moment they'd first touched. He had flown to Mumbai the day after the incident with Lila at the restaurant. She'd met with him in the middle of the night at a garbage dump of a hotel, so her security guard wouldn't follow. She had knocked on his door with a certain level of trepidation- what if he wasn't real, after all?- but as soon as it swung open, all she could do was throw herself into Wolfgang's arms. How could she have thought she'd seen him before this moment? They had stood like that for an indeterminate amount of time before he whispered in her ear. "I think you have to leave Rajan."

She had laughed. In that doorway, surrounded by him, it had seemed like the easiest thing in the world.

Over the coming days, she'd called in sick almost every morning. Kala had been too paranoid of being seen to go out on the street and show Wolfgang around in person, so she would stay in bed all day, and visit him as he walked around. She showed him her favorite restaurants, where she used to play as a kid. She wanted to show him everything. During the day her torrid affair was easy.

At night, though, she was faced with a different problem. Kala knew she couldn't abide by Wolfgang being in her city and her not seeing him as much as she could. Really seeing him, not just in her head. Now that they'd experienced it, visiting seemed almost useless. She told the security team and her receptionist that she would be sleeping at her parents' house, and prayed Rajan wouldn't call to check. For added detail, she threw in that her father had a secret recipe for chai when she was sick that she couldn't reproduce herself.

Her nights that first week were spent in that garbage hotel. One night, tangled under the scratchy sheets, Kala watched Wolfgang sleep the way she had so many times when he was all those miles away. She ran her fingers absentmindedly through his hair, and his eyes drifted open. "You know..." he started. It dawned on Kala that he hadn't been sleeping at all, but formulating his next words. "You do have to leave him. Soon."

Up to this point, every time he'd mentioned that to her (which was fairly often), she'd avoided the topic fairly deftly. Kala had figured out months earlier the easiest ways to distract Wolfgang. It wasn't as hard as one might think.

But tonight he had resolve, she could feel it leaking from his head into hers. Kala shut her eyes. "I know. I will."

"When?"

"Soon."

Wolfgang sat up and looked back at her. "When is soon?" She moved to sit on his lap, kiss him, fuck him, pretty much anything to pretend Rajan didn't exist.

Wolfgang pulled his head away from her. His brow furrowed. "This has been going on long enough." Kala deflated.

"You can't be sick for another night, or he's going to take you to hospital. You have to do it soon."

Kala pressed their foreheads together. She could tell that Wolfgang was serious this time. After all they'd been through, she owed him this. He'd never say it, but she suspected he agreed.

"I'll do it tomorrow." Wolfgang eyed her suspiciously. "I promise." He smiled as she kissed him.

She hadn't done it tomorrow. Or the day after. Her window for being "sick" had, indeed, closed. She went back to work, and let Wolfgang visit her if she was in her office alone. (Or once when she wasn't. It was an interesting meeting.)

That second week had been much more complicated. At night she found herself back in her firm bed with Rajan holding her contentedly. Kala had never minded before, but now that she had discovered what it was like to be in the same room as Wolfgang, she was ready to jump out of her skin. She'd been back a week when she waited for Rajan to fall asleep before sneaking into the bathroom to visit her demon.

He was sleeping naked, as always, sprawled out on the moth-eaten mattress. She shook him awake, and he bolted straight up, immediately going for the gun on the bedside table. "Wolfgang! No, it's just me, it's just me." His wild eyes settled.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Sometimes, in his kindness, she forgot the things he'd seen.

Wolfgang shook his head. "No. I'm sorry if I scared you. Did I...?" He trailed off, and she could see him force himself to look her in the eye. "You didn't," she said. She knew he didn't fully believe her. He never did.

"Wolfgang, I'm here because I... I was in bed with Rajan, and I suddenly... I can't do it anymore. I feel ready now."

Wolfgang's eyebrows shot up. "Right now?"

"No, not right now. After work tomorrow. I mean it this time." At Wolfgang's unconvinced squint she added, "I made a list. Of reasons why I can't stay."

"Am I one of them?"

She smiled. "You're three of them."

Wolfgang pulled her to him by the hand and growled, "Good." He kissed her so fiercely that Kala thought she might need to add his name to the list one more time.

She pulled away from him- she had one more thing to say. "If you want to be there... it might help."

"You want me there? While you leave your husband for me?"

"When you put it like that it sounds wrong, doesn't it?" She stared down.

Wolfgang tilted her chin up with his thumb. "I don't give a shit about wrong."

 

So here she was, sitting across from the man she'd turned into a cuckold. How would she explain this to her parents? No, she couldn't think that far ahead. One thing at a time. She tried to speak, but again found the words caught in her throat.

A soft hand laced its fingers through hers. Lito, on the floor next to her seat. "If you want," he said, "I can do it. It'll be easy."

As tempting as that sounded, she shook her head quickly. She had to do this herself.

"Rajan," she started. "This may come as a surprise, it may not. But I don't think that this marriage is working." She'd said it. Kala stared a hole through Rajan's knee as she continued. "You know I was having second thoughts leading up to the wedding. And then I collapsed, and.... I understand why you thought I may not want to marry you after all that. The truth is, I don't think I feel exactly the same way about you that you feel about me." She chanced a look at him. His face looked shattered. She needed to fix this. "Rajan, I do love you. But not in the way that you deserve. You are one of the best people I have ever met and you deserve someone who isn't- you deserve someone better."

"I don't understand. Is there someone else?" Rajan asked. His voice was deep, almost cold. "Kala, look at me. Is there?"

She glanced at Wolfgang, standing in front of the sliding glass doors, raising an eyebrow at her. She turned back to Rajan.

"Yes."

It was as if she'd shot him. "Who? Who is it? It's Ajay, isn't it? I should've known, I shou-"

"No! No, it's not Ajay! It's someone else."

"Who, then? Someone from the company?"

Maybe inviting Wolfgang to sit in on this hadn't been the best idea, because the solemn look on his face combined with Rajan's tortured puppy act was almost too much to bear.

"You don't know him. He's not from here."

Rajan, clearly, was blindsided. "Kala, please, I know that this is complicated. If you're trying to spare my feelings, do not. I just want to know who he is."

Will crossed in front of Wolfgang and kneeled in front of her. "Just explain everything. Like you said to me, remember?" He smiled, the kind of warm smile that a brother gives a sister.

"Rajan, this will not be easy to explain. I know you're going to have a lot of questions, or decide to call an ambulance and have me committed," she shook her head. "I need you to listen."

Rajan nodded.

Suddenly, Kala felt the room fill up. Standing in front of the TV was her entire cluster. The encouragement emanating from them, from Sun's curt nod to Nomi grinding her teeth, was enough to help Kala say what she needed to, even if it came out rushed and crazed.

Which it did.

"Alright. I am an entirely different species of human being called Homo Sensorium. We are completely identical to Homo Sapien except we have a growth of the substantia alba and an excess of psycellium that can connect us. There are seven other sensorium all over the world, born the same moment as myself. We are all connected through the psycellium, so we can see and hear and touch each other. I feel what they feel and know what they know. Remember on the conference call a few weeks ago when you asked me how I knew Spanish? Well I didn't even know I was speaking Spanish, but one of my cluster- that's what it's called, a cluster- lives in Mexico so I speak Spanish as well as he can. They are my seven other selves, in a way. Does that make sense?"

Kala caught her breath. She glanced at the cluster. They seemed tense. Riley looked side to side before admitting, "I think you could have done that a little better?"

Oh no.

Rajan's eyes were wide. "Kala. I think you need medical attention. You were just sick, after all."

"No, I don't! I can prove it." She thought back to how Will had called Diego to prove he and Riley's connection. "I can have one of them call you. They are all standing in this room, watching and listening. If you want proof, they know your phone number because I do."

"This man. That you're... leaving for," Rajan gulped, "He is in this cluster?"

"Yes. He is."

"Have _him_ call me."

"What?" She hadn't expected that.

"Yes, I'd like to speak with him. If any of this is real, I would feel better knowing you're taken care of. Please, Kala. Grant me this."

Kala looked at Wolfgang, who was already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. He pressed it to his ear.

Rajan's phone rang, and he jumped despite himself. He looked at Kala as he answered it, very slowly.

"...Hello?"

"This is Wolfgang," Wolfgang made sure to double check he was speaking Hindi.

"Wolfgang? You're the... man?" Rajan's voice was measured, Kala could tell he was trying to keep it free of malice.

"I am."

"Where are you from?"

Wolfgang smirked. "Berlin."

"Germany!?" Rajan gaped. "You're having an affair with my wife from _Germany_?"

Wolfgang shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Not at the moment."

Kala shook her head wildly at him. Unfortunately, Wolfgang didn't see this action, and Rajan did. "I'm in Bombay."

Kala buried her head in her hands. This was bad.

Rajan's next attempt to conceal his anger failed. "I want to meet you. Right now."

The next twenty minutes passed in a blur. Kala watched helplessly as they decided on a place, a restaurant not far from the flat. Rajan insisted Kala not come along, that this was a conversation he needed to have alone. To which Wolfgang reminded him with some snark over the phone that Kala could be there whether or not she was invited, due to their connection. Rajan didn't seem to react well to the statement; he huffed and hung up the call. He urged Kala to stay behind anyway. The entire cluster, joined by Kala, followed Wolfgang to the restaurant, reminding him that no matter what was said, don't be provoked. Don't hurt Rajan, under any circumstances. Wolfgang insisted that they needn't be worried. They all glanced at each other, thoroughly unconvinced.

Kala knew Rajan had a dark side. She'd seen his anger before, but never directed towards her. As Wolfgang entered the restaurant, she realized that she may see Rajan at his worst. And since she and Wolfgang shared a mind, it might as well be directed at her. As this thought came to her, Lito whispered in her ear, "This may not be helpful, but he will probably be angry at the actual you, as well."

How had her life become so complicated?

Wolfgang looked around the restaurant and spotted Rajan at a corner table, staring intently at his empty plate. Wolfgang approached the table, but didn't sit. Rajan looked up at him. "Are you Wolfgang?"

Wolfgang nodded. Rajan openly sized him up. Kala hoped with all her heart that Rajan registered that picking a fight with this man would end poorly for him.

"Sit. If you want."

Wolfgang shot a look to the cluster and took a seat. They were all reminded of the meeting with Lila a few short weeks ago. Of course, this would end differently.

Probably.

The two men sat in silence for a bit; it was unclear whether this was an intimidation tactic from Rajan or not, but either way, Wolfgang had no problem with silence. If it was a tactic, it didn't work.

Finally, Rajan spoke. "You have some sort of connection to my wife. How does it work?"

Wolfgang tried to explain the phenomenon of visiting and sharing. He'd never been good with words, but Rajan seemed to understand to a certain degree. "And how did you meet Kala? _When_ did you meet Kala?" He spoke as if he didn't want to know the answer.

"The connection between the eight of us only started about a year ago."

"So... she was engaged to me when you met?"

Kala squeezed her eyes shut.

"Yes."

"She has been with you for our entire marriage, then." Rajan's voice shook.

"No. We weren't, at first.... We didn't know what was going on. We'd hardly seen each other up to the wedding."

Rajan's eyes widened. "What do you mean? The wedding?"

"The first wedding. She didn't want to marry you. She fainted because I appeared to her." Kala was grateful he left out the details of his attire at the time.

"She saw you and fainted?"

Kala knew what Rajan was thinking. His words from the next morning rang through her head the same way they must've been running through his.

_But I imagine telling our children how their beautiful mother took one look at their father and fainted straight away._

Rajan's jaw clenched and he looked Wolfgang up and down yet again. "What do you do for a living, Wolfgang? If Kala is going to be with you, I need to know she's being supported."

"She makes money for herself, why does she need someone else supporting her?" Wolfgang cocked his head to the side.

Kala loved him.

"I'm aware," Rajan backtracked. "I just mean that I want to make sure she is secure."

"I'm a locksmith," Wolfgang said. The cluster behind him stopped themselves from laughing. A locksmith and nothing else at all.

"A locksmith. Do you own a shop?"

"No, it's owned by my friend. But I work there."

Rajan clearly didn't approve. Kala wondered what his reaction would be if he found out about Wolfgang's much more lucrative side job as a thief and a murderer.

She almost wanted to see that.

"I have to ask before we continue," Rajan said, "Is she here now? Can she hear us?"

Wolfgang looked to Kala, standing in front of the six others. "Yes. She's biting her nails."

Kala hadn't even noticed. She crossed her arms.

Rajan mulled this over for a long moment. "There is no way for her to leave?"

Wolfgang shook his head before saying bluntly, "Even if there was, I see no reason for it."

"I need to ask something of you, I'd prefer if she did not hear."

Wolfgang tensed. "Anything you can say to me you can say in front of her."

"Not really," Rajan replied. "I love her. I don't want her hearing what I am going to ask."

Wolfgang set his jaw and sat back in his chair. He had no intention of casting Kala out. Rajan sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Alright. I suppose if there isn't a choice. How long have you been here in Bombay?"

"Two weeks."

"How long have you been sleeping with her?"

"Longer than that."

This was a complete disaster, Kala decided. She shouldn't have told Rajan that there was someone else. She should have said that she needed to find herself. She shouldn't have told him about the cluster, she should have left him, quick and dirty, and been on the next flight to Berlin with Wolfgang. That is what she should have done.

Nomi lifted an eyebrow. "At a certain point, wouldn't it be easier for them to just whip them out and measure them right now?"

Riley clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh; Capheus grinned. Lito shot Nomi a look. "I'm sorry, but she's made her choice. Rajan needs to let her go, and Wolfgang- you need to stop trying to prove something," Nomi said. "You're egging him on."

"She's right," Sun added. "If you're going to hit him, hit him. Playing with your food is immature."

Will stepped in now. "No one's starting a fight." Kala thanked the gods for his sensible head. Will continued, "Not in here. Wolfgang, if you're gonna knock his lights out, take it outside."

Kala threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. This could not get any worse.

As if on cue, Rajan broke his silence. "In that case," he inhaled deeply. "I think I need to punch you. Just once."

It was like he'd read their minds. The cluster had varied reactions, but all looked to Wolfgang. They knew that it wouldn't be just one punch. If Rajan came for Wolfgang, only one of them would be walking away with teeth.

Wolfgang smiled, aware of Rajan's unawareness of this fact. "You don't want to do that."

"A fight then," Rajan spit out. "Outside, right now."

"Let me think about it," Wolfgang said with mock indecisiveness.

"He has no idea what he's talking about," Lito said thoughtfully. "He's taking this from movies or something. He's puffing up his chest, but he has nothing to back this up. Wolfgang, if you fight him, you have to be nice. He has less experience than me."

Kala couldn't believe this was happening. It was a nightmare come true. She wouldn't let it stand. "Do not fight him at all! I don't want you fighting over me. What year is it? I can make my own choices, I've chosen you. I don't care if he's begging for it."

Wolfgang locked eyes with her. She could feel him as he changed his mind. She knew he wanted to make her happy more than anything else. If that meant turning down a fight, then so be it. He turned back to Rajan. "No. No, I'm not going to fight you."

Kala's heart barely had time to swell with pride before Rajan leapt up and decked Wolfgang in the jaw.

 

 


	2. Wolfgang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two!
> 
> Keep voting for Sense8 on all the eonline.com polls and keep up the #BringBackSense8 movement however you can!

Wolfgang, from an early age, went about his life expecting death to claim him at any moment. He turned corners paranoid, ready to be faced with a gun to his head. If someone bumped shoulders with him on the sidewalk, he pretty much always assessed the different ways to beat the shit out of him, if the situation arose.

Maybe that was why being knocked on his ass by Rajan Rasal was so embarrassing. He'd allowed the insanity of the last hour to tear his guard down, and now Rajan was being pulled off of him by some waiter.

Embarrassing.

The two men stumbled to their feet. Wolfgang was suddenly aware of the tinny taste of blood in his mouth. Either Rajan was stronger than he looked or Wolfgang had really been that unprepared. How could he have been? With all Rajan's talk of hitting him, he'd never actually expected him to do it. Not here, at least. All of Wolfgang's past experiences with Rajan had been through Kala's eyes, so perhaps all he knew about the man was the dope-in-love that he was around her.

At the thought, Wolfgang felt a particular sting. Rajan loved her, too, and even after all this, he was probably still the wiser choice.

A round little man who must have been the owner escorted them harshly from the restaurant, waiting until they were on the street to ream them out in angered, stunted English for their violence in what was a 'peaceful family establish'. Wolfgang smirked. Two weeks in Bombay and he had already been banned from a public establishment. Felix would be surprised it had taken him this long.

Rajan had seemed to regain his head, and was apologizing profusely to the man. He even offered to pay if there were any damages. And Wolfgang had thought for a moment that he'd gained the moral high ground on this guy. No, Rajan would always be better than him. That was something he'd come to terms with over the last year, and now that they were face to face on the street, with Rajan having reassembled himself, it was as clear as ever.

"Wolfgang, I apologize for my outburst," Rajan said. "That was- that was beyond inappropriate. I'm sorry I asked that of you. I am even more sorry that I did it."

Wolfgang was almost disappointed. There was a fairly large part of him that had been relieved he'd been given an excuse to pound Rajan into the pavement. He'd started it, right?

But now, that would make him the bad guy. Again. "It's fine," he reluctantly replied. "I deserved it. I would've done the same thing, and probably more."

Rajan looked up at the sky, pink with the coming sunset. He turned back to Wolfgang. "You would call yourself dangerous, then?"

Wolfgang felt his brows furrow. "What do you mean?"

"Will being with you put Kala in danger? It's just- I don't... I do not trust you," he stammered. "I wouldn't trust _anyone_ having an affair with my wife." He grimaced at his own words; he was still a bit in shock at Kala's infidelity. 

"Something about you, though, is more than that." He stopped, and looked left to right. "Is Kala still listening?"

Wolfgang, in his haste, had almost forgotten the cluster's presence. He still felt them, at his left. He glanced at them, standing in a clump. Just six. One missing.

"No. She's gone." He hadn't noticed her stop visiting. He reached out, and caught a glimpse of her in the back of a cab. Kala had started coming for him the moment he'd hit the floor.

Rajan nodded. "You mustn't tell her what I am about to tell you." Wolfgang's eyebrows shot up.

"I am involved in investigating a rather serious case of political corruption. I have been for some time. Kala doesn't know because it may become dangerous for her. I tell you this because you need to know that I am a good judge of character. I have to be, for the sort of work I am doing now. And you, Wolfgang, are not the kind of man I want Kala standing next to on a lift, much less the kind of man I want to see her with romantically," he said matter-of-factly. "And I have a feeling you don't entirely disagree. I have a feeling you recognize the kind of person Kala is. And what she deserves."

Rajan _was_ a good judge of character, then. Wolfgang said nothing.

"Does she know who you are? In this way?" Rajan asked.

Wolfgang thought quickly back to that day in Sergei's mansion. She had seen everything. She had helped. And, as he'd come to understand later, the tears she cried watching him empty that clip were not out of fear or horror. They were his tears that he could not shed.

"She does. More than I do."

"My earlier question, then. Will being with you put her in danger?"

BPO. Lila. Cops. Fuchs. Whispers.

He had always been a shit liar, anyway. "Yes."

He searched Rajan's face as he took that in. If what he'd told Wolfgang was true, then she was in danger either way. They both knew this without discussing it. "So," Rajan forced out, "Is she happy with you?"

"I don't need your approval," the words escaped Wolfgang's lips despite him.

He heard Will step forward. "Easy," he warned.

Wolfgang turned to him. "No. I've had enough of this. Rajan, whether or not you're better for her, she isn't interested. She's leaving you. With or without me, that is what's going to happen."

Capheus spoke from his place on the street. "Maybe you _should_ ease up a little?"

Wolfgang didn't want to ease up. Suddenly a year of watching Rajan's marriage to Kala had come crashing down over his ears. Every chaste little touch, every sneaky smile across a conference room. All those sickeningly sweet moments that he hadn't gotten, and Rajan had. Rajan who she didn't love, who had gotten her because of... what? His money? His family? His goddamn chivalry? No. Wolfgang had abided it too long. He had watched them get married- twice. The first time he had desperately protested. But it hadn't been his desperation or his protest. It had been hers.

The second wedding was a lot harder, because he'd known she was going to go through with it this time. He had told her to. In his darkest, bloodiest moment he had told her to do the one thing he'd known she didn't want to do, even before he knew her name. The night of that wedding, the real wedding, he had absolutely drowned himself in booze. He'd almost gone home with some girl before he'd scared her off by vomiting on the sidewalk. He had stumbled into bed, at least grateful he couldn't remember whatever it was he'd been drinking to forget.

And he dreamed of her anyway.

So if Rajan had the nerve to stand nose to nose with him and tell him that his intentions were impure, maybe he deserved a beat down after all.

Wolfgang wondered vaguely if he had said any of that out loud- he may have, judging from the look on Rajan's fucking face. No, he definitely had. 

Across the street over his shoulder, a car door slammed closed. Wolfgang looked towards the noise and saw Kala running straight at them. She planted herself firmly between the two, breaking them apart.

"This is madness," she gulped. "This is the exact opposite of how to deal with this- this non-issue!" At the look on her husband's face, she added, "No, I only mean that- that you are fighting over absolutely nothing. Rajan, I told you earlier. I am leaving you. Not because of Wolfgang. Because of me."

"But you will be with him?" Rajan had reverted back to Sad Puppy now that Kala was here. Wolfgang felt like rolling his eyes, but refrained. He felt Sun do it for him.

"Yes. I will," Kala stated firmly. "You do not get to have an opinion about that."

Rajan nodded, solemn. He looked between Kala and Wolfgang. "If this is what will make you happy, Kala, then I have no choice but to understand."

"So he's just... fine with it now?" Lito blurted out. "He was trying to kill him two minutes ago."

"The civilizing nature of women, I suppose." Sun's voice dripped with sarcasm. Nomi groaned.

Kala screwed her eyes shut; Wolfgang could feel her patience with the peanut gallery wearing thin. They must have felt it too, based on Capheus' muttered apology, followed by silence from the rest of the group.

"Thank you," Kala said to Rajan. (And to Capheus, a little.)

Rajan took her hand. He studied it for a long moment before sighing, "I will always be here for you, no matter what. And if you need me to help you tell your parents, I would be more than happy to-"

"Oh shit!" gasped Riley. She pulled Will's sleeve down until his ear was level with her mouth. "What is she going to tell her parents? Did we even think about that?" Will shook his head. "No, but I'll bet she did."

Kala stuck up a finger to Rajan to tell him to give her a moment. Wolfgang smirked again as she turned to the cluster. "I did think of it," she said wildly. "I will take care of it very soon. Please, as much as I love you all being here for me right now, would you mind keeping it down?" The whole cluster knew that Kala's wide eyes and wider smile were the signs of her being a hair's breadth away from losing her shit completely. Not used to being anything but helpful, the six sensates on the street weren't sure what reaction to convey.

Wolfgang piped up for the first time since his cruel little speech. "Maybe you should stop visiting and just listen in for a while."

They vanished. Wolfgang could still feel their presence at the fringes of his mind as they listened, like six pairs of headphones plugged into the back of his head. Distantly, he could still hear Riley and Will whisper to each other about what Sanyam was likely to do when he found out, and Amanita squealing as Nomi filled her in on the drama of the evening.

The color had drained from Rajan's face a bit as he took in the whole exchange. Ruefully, Wolfgang wondered if it had been enough to turn him off of Kala completely. "Don't mind that," Kala shook her head. "You can go home, I'm going to tell my parents right now. Thank you for offering to help." She turned on the spot and started walking away before either Wolfgang or Rajan could say anything to stop her.

They were left dumbfounded at her sudden exit, and looked back at each other.

Shit, Wolfgang had thought this was awkward _before_? What was he supposed to do now? Wave goodbye? Say something? Run?

The last option wasn't looking horrible when Kala's voice rang out from down the street. "Wolfgang!"

Wolfgang turned. He saw Kala standing thirty or so feet away, and then felt her at his ear. He looked to the Kala that was visiting him, right at his shoulder. "Come with me?" she asked. Her eyebrows cocked expectantly.

He felt his face split into a wide grin. "Because this went so well." he was at her side now, teasing her not thirty feet from his own body.

The real Kala shrugged. Wolfgang nodded to Rajan, and jogged down the street to join her. He ignored Rajan's questions about where he was going, was he going with her, were they talking in their heads, something something something.

When he reached her, he marveled, "I thought you were trying to break it off nicely. Me going with you, leaving him in the dirt?" He shook his head disapprovingly. "That's not very nice, Ms. Rasal."

"Don't call me that. And no, I suppose it isn't." They were walking now. She wasn't looking back. "But all my attempts to be a better person up to now have failed, haven't they? I need to move on with my life. Besides, I never thought Rajan to be capable of that sort of senseless anger."

"Violence is a turn-off for you now?"

"I do not believe in violence."

"Then what are you doing with me?"

Kala looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. Her eyes were full of mischief; Wolfgang could have sworn he felt his chest expand into his knees. "I'm afraid I'm stuck with you," she said. "Don't forget- you didn't even hit back. So who, between you, is more violent?"

Sun materialized in front of them and threw a nod in Wolfgang's direction. "It is still him."

She vanished as quickly as she'd come. Wolfgang listened intently to Kala rationalizing why he, despite his history, was a more peaceful choice than Rajan. Wolfgang knew that she didn't believe everything she said, just as he knew she felt terrible about walking out on Rajan so suddenly (And then just as suddenly, literally leaving him on the street).

He could see, could feel the storm raging inside of her. Despite the romance novel ending of the meeting with Rajan, it would have real world consequences. Kala saw that, as well as the fact that most of those consequences would rain down on her, exclusively. Her work, her home, her family all hung in the balance of the events of that evening. And it didn't take a genius to see that almost everything had gone disastrously. She had left him, yes. That was one good thing.

But her attempt to explain the phenomenon of homo sensorium was long winded and confusing, Wolfgang had been too gruff on the phone, the meeting had been (Nomi was right) an all-out testosterone fueled mess, the argument outside was too personal and Kala's appearance too hectic. On top of all of that, their departure had been inconsiderate at best, and downright cruel at worst. Wolfgang suddenly regretted ever coming to Bombay. He should have gone someplace else from Berlin and waited for her. She could've met him somewhere, anywhere. He'd never been to Paris, maybe that would've been-

"Stop thinking like that," she scolded. "It is too late now. Besides, we're almost to my parents' house."

"You're sure you want me here? Maybe it would have been better with Rajan if I wasn't there at all."

Kala shook her head no. "I needed you there. Just like I need you here." She stopped him, and turned his head to face her. With her hands cupping his face, Wolfgang's eyes shut against his will. As if he had a will around her.

"You, Wolfgang, are feeling bad for Rajan. I don't know why I'm surprised."

He opened his eyes. She was smiling again.

"I feel the same," she continued, her smile growing sadder, "But if you hadn't walked away with me, I may have looked back."

 

They stood in front of Dandekar Restaurant, Kala's frantic heartbeat pounding in both their chests.

"Wait here", Kala motioned toward a table by the staircase. "You can be visiting me, and come in when I tell you to? Will that work?" She was panicking.

Wolfgang placed his hands on her shoulders. "You don't have to do this now. It's getting late, you can tell them once you've sorted the shit with Rajan."

"No. No, I can't. If I do that, then he might tell them before I do. He and Dad are close, I can't risk it."

"Are you sure?" he asked with his brows furrowed.

Kala nodded, and squeezed his hand before heading toward the stairs, where she could hear her family talking jovially upstairs. She smiled to herself, and followed the noise onto the roof, where her parents and sister were sitting on the couches, conversing. Daya noticed her first.

"Kala!" she exclaimed. The rest of the family whipped their heads around to her and burst into a chorus of her name. Sanyam stood and embraced her. "What a surprise! How did you get in?"

"You left the door unlocked again." Kala grinned at her mother shaking her head at her husband's scatterbrain.

Priya looked Kala up and down. "Are you alright, Kala? You seem troubled by something." She might as well be a sensate, she could read Kala so well.

"Do it quickly," Wolfgang whispered in her ear. She ignored the chill it sent up her spine. "Not like last time." He was smiling- she could hear it.

Kala cleared her throat, "Yes, I have something to tell all of you. I'm sorry, I know you should be going to bed soon but it couldn't wait."

The demeanor of her family changed. "Sit, Kala," Sanyam urged, and made a place for her between him and Priya. Kala thanked the gods that her Auntie wasn't here. That would be too much to bear. "What's troubling you?"

Kala breathed in as deep as she could. Quickly, she reminded herself. "I left Rajan tonight. For good."

Silence. Silence so deafeningly silent that she could hear Lito's breath as he eavesdropped.

Finally, Priya took her hand. "I know you were having... problems with Rajan. But this was a love marriage for a reason. It can seem difficult after your first fight-"

"No, it wasn't. It wasn't a love marriage." Kala didn't mean to be whispering, but whispering she was. "I never loved him. I didn't want to disappoint you, or anyone, so I said yes because... how could I say no?"

"I don't understand this, Kala," Priya said as she let go of Kala's hand. A bad sign. "You had every opportunity to call off the wedding. You had two weddings, for goodness sake."

"After what happened to Papa-ji, I couldn't hurt Rajan anymore. Especially because no one knew if he would even live," Kala couldn't bring herself to look at anything but the flower sitting in a pot on the table.

Sanyam spoke next, with delicately chosen words. "Why now? You have been married for almost a year."

Daya gasped. "There's another man. There is, isn't there?" Her eyes lit up at Kala's flush. "Kala, who?"

Daya's face expressed both intrigue and distress- she'd always adored Rajan, but no matter what, Daya loved a scandal more.

Her parents' heads both snapped up at Kala. "Is this true, Kala?" Priya asked incredulously.

Kala nodded. "It is."

Sanyam made a face like choking; Priya put her hand over her heart and started mumbling- praying?

Wolfgang stood on the other side of the table, surveying the scene with his arms crossed. "A little dramatic, no?" He tilted his head. "Do you want me to come up?"

Kala mustered up her courage and found herself stating with conviction- "He's waiting here, downstairs."

Daya was out the door in a flash, followed closely by Priya and Sanyam, still in shock.

 

Daya skittered to a stop in front of Wolfgang, standing up behind his seat. His palms were sweating, why were his palms sweating? He wiped them on his jeans and prayed to every one of Kala's gods that Daya hadn't seen.

"You're the man?" she asked, in English. Wolfgang wasn't surprised at her assumption that he didn't speak Hindi- he didn't exactly look like a native.

"मैं हूँ", he replied. _I am._

Daya flinched as her parents arrived at the bottom of the stairs behind her, followed closely by Kala. Wolfgang addressed them as politely as he could. He remembered the posture he (Will) had learned at the police academy.

He'd felt none of this apprehension when he'd met Rajan earlier tonight. (Had that really just been earlier tonight?) But he hadn't been trying to impress Rajan. If anything, some small part of him _wanted_ Rajan to hate him. He'd spent too much time jealous of Kala's soon-to-be ex-husband, and strolling up to that cramped restaurant table had admittedly been some sort of sick victory lap.

This was a different story altogether.

Daya turned to her parents. "He speaks Hindi!" Clearly he'd already won over the sister. But Wolfgang was self-aware enough to know that his good looks had more to do with that than his Hindi.

Priya and Sanyam looked him up and down, almost exactly like Rajan had. Sanyam stepped forward. "Your name?" he asked slowly. Clearly he had his doubts about Wolfgang's fluency.

"Wolfgang."

"Wolfgang what?" He'd been hoping to avoid this. Wolfgang had never liked introducing himself with his last name, especially to people who were, without a doubt, going to google his name as soon as the door closed behind him. He tried to mask his wince.

"Bogdanow."

"Russian?"

"German."

Sanyam took another step toward him. "Sanyam Dandekar." He didn't offer a hand to shake. "My wife, Priya. My daughter, Daya." He gestured to them as he said their names.

It was surreal to Wolfgang to be introduced to people who he knew as if he was their own. He knew how Sanyam broke his toe last year. He knew Daya's favorite kind of clothing hanger, and how Priya disliked the color orange.

His eyes flickered to Kala, perched on the bottom step, looking worried. He felt what she was thinking. This, like everything since Rajan arrived home from work, was not going well. When was she going to stop replaying that sentiment in her head? It was getting repetitive.

"How did you meet my daughter?" Sanyam asked. His gaze held none of the warmth that they held in Kala's memories. On the contrary, they were cold and unreadable.

Kala, from behind them, called, "Wolfgang came to Bombay on business a month ago. He _owns_ a key shop in Berlin, and there is some new kind of Mumbai-made safe he came to purchase." She sent him a thought that rattled through his head. _Go along._

_I can't. I couldn't even lie to Rajan about how long I'd been fucking his wife!_

_You do not have a choice._

_Shit. Lito!_

Lito nodded vehemently. "It's important to stay ahead of the curve. You know what I mean," he added to Sanyam. "As a business owner yourself."

Sanyam squinted at Wolfgang, trying to make sense of his suddenly relaxed stance. "Yes. Of course. But if you've been here a month, perhaps the curve has come and gone."

"I planned on staying for a much shorter time. But after I met your daughter... I cancelled my flight back," Lito tipped Wolfgang's chin down. "I understand how inappropriate that is."

"It is, quite," Priya crossed in front of Sanyam. "She is a married woman."

"I know," Lito insisted, with more earnestness in Wolfgang's voice than anyone, living or dead, had ever heard. "We have never even kissed. Neither of us want to hurt anyone. She decided to leave Rajan before anything else were to happen."

Wolfgang and Kala had never been more grateful than they were to Lito right now.

Priya turned back to Kala behind her. "You just met this man, and you are leaving Rajan for him? Be sensible, Kala."

Kala walked past her parents, then turned back to face them. "I would have left Rajan no matter what. He is just part of the reason to do it now and not in ten years when I'm trapped with three babies and no job to speak of!" She stopped, took a breath, calmed down. "I know it seems absurd. I know that. If I were you, I would be thinking I was running off with the first man I see. I would think I'm convincing myself of something just because he is clearly the opposite of Rajan."

 _That has to sting a little, my friend_ , Lito thought in Wolfgang's ear.

Sanyam shrugged. "That may be." He looked back to Wolfgang, who was now actually Wolfgang. Lito stood to the side, ready to spring back into action if needed.

"Kala, you have always been the smartest person I know," Sanyam sighed. "If you can recognize that possibility on your own... then we must recognize your ability to make your own choices. Whether they are right or not."

Kala beamed. "This is the right choice." She looked to her mother. "It is."

Priya frowned, but held Kala anyway. She walked then until she was less than a foot from Wolfgang. She stared up at him, her gaze flickering between his eyes. "Every instinct in my body tells me not to let her go with you," she said. "But then I remember my desire to be free when I was a young girl. Will you set Kala free?"

"I will."

She stepped away from him and took his hands into her own. "I believe you," she said. "Kala," she looked over her shoulder at her eldest daughter, "we should discuss this more tomorrow, don't you think?"

"Yes, we should. Definitely."

Priya addressed Wolfgang again, having let go of his hands. "When will you be going back to Germany?"

"I'm in Paris next, actually. For..." his eyes flickered to Lito. "Business." Lito grinned and disappeared.

"But I'm not sure when," he finished.

"I'll be going with him when he does," Kala said bravely. They'd never talked about it. But of course. Of course.

Wolfgang smiled. "Yes, she will."

He could see on Kala's parents' faces that they knew there was nothing, absolutely nothing they could do to stop their precious daughter from making this mistake. Running away with a strange white foreigner, traveling the world for a strange job that lent itself too well to crime. Wolfgang wouldn't trust his daughter with someone like him. But there was trust in this house. Trust that had never existed in his.

"Kala, I hope to see you tomorrow," Sanyam had his hands on her cheeks. "This is a lot to take in, you understand." He chuckled.

"I do," she replied. She lifted her hands to rest over his. "I promise I know what it is I am doing."

Wolfgang watched him embrace her, and felt the love pour out of her heart and through his. It didn't matter that he'd never had a father to embrace him that way. Not only because he could feel, through the psycellium, Sanyam's saffron scented form around his. Not only that. It also didn't matter because Wolfgang had her. He had his cluster. He had Felix.

He had _her_.

They said their goodbyes as respectfully as humanly possible. As soon as the door to the restaurant swung shut, Wolfgang swooped down and lifted Kala into his arms. She shrieked with laughter as he carried her down the street. "You know my sister has to be watching through the window!" she gasped between giggles. Wolfgang shrugged. "At least she didn't punch me in the face."

He set her down on the curb, so she stood a few inches taller than him. "You think they're googling me?"

"Why?"

"I would be googling me. I'm suspicious."

Kala nodded thoughtfully. "Well I expect the police reports will be in German, they won't understand them even if they were to stumble onto them. However, _polizei_ is a fairly easy word to infer... oh. You're kidding."

He gave her his most wicked grin.

"I should have realized that," she flushed. She let him laugh at her before cutting him off with a question that wiped any semblance of a smile from his face.

"I have to go back to my apartment, don't I? I packed a bag, but as soon as he hit you I was out the door without it. I don't have any of my things."

Wolfgang studied the pavement. "Do you need them?"

"Yes, I need them! I am not like you or Riley, I cannot go from place to place with a plastic bag of money and not a care in the world! I have-"

"Sense?"

"Please, I'll go quickly, I'll be out in no time at all," she pressed her forehead to his, which always killed him, no matter how many times she did it. She leaned down and caught his lips in a kiss.

Wolfgang groaned into her mouth and pulled away, a fraction of an inch. "This fucking night is never going to end, is it?"

 

  
He waited outside her apartment building- former apartment building, he reminded himself- for far longer than she had promised. A cursory glance into her head saw her uncomfortably explaining the situation to a raw, tear-streaked Rajan.

Ouch.

Rajan, always the gentleman (except for when he's not), allowed her to come and go, even offered her money to start her life comfortably. Kala refused all of his offerings, and told him straight up that she was leaving for Paris soon with Wolfgang. She didn't know how soon. She didn't know when she'd be back.

He told her he would find her a temporary replacement at work, to which she replied in so many words that she hoped he would keep the details of their separation to himself. Especially the part about her being an entirely different species of human.

He agreed to that too.

Kala emerged from the lobby doors, rolling a shiny white suitcase adorned with a huge butterfly. It was stuffed to the gills- it wasn't even zipped all the way up.

"What's the plan?" Wolfgang asked.

"Tea with my parents tomorrow. Paris whenever."

"Do you think Rajan will tell your parents about the cluster?" he asked, concerned.

She shrugged. "He may. I doubt he'll be talking to them any time soon, based on his face when I told him about Paris."

"If he does?"

"I think... we'll be gone by then."

Wolfgang wrapped his arms around her waist, and she stuck up a finger to stop him from leaning in. "First," she breathed, "I need to know something."

"What?"

"Something true."

Wolfgang was confused. "I've never lied to you."

"But you haven't told me the whole truth, either."

Had he needed to? Had she not known from the moment he looked over at her at that Berlin café that he was hers? He'd known how she felt about him at karaoke. Standing on her bed, dancing with her in a dream. (He'd confused the glint in her eyes at first. He'd thought it was lust, and nothing more. Lust was something he understood. People had always looked at him with lust.) But that look, open to him as she sang, was freeing. He would come to know not long after that what it was like to truly be wanted by someone. She was the first to uncover that for him.

Wolfgang reached into her head, but she was keeping him out. She wanted words. He was shit with words.

But if that's what it took for her to know, then he didn't have a choice.

The night was hot, and the air was still. Strands of Kala's hair were stuck to her face with sweat. She had bags under her eyes. Wolfgang was sure he looked even worse, after the night they'd had. At least his gums had stopped bleeding.

Wolfgang wondered vaguely what he would think if he saw a sweaty, haggard couple nose to nose on the street like this. He wondered and he didn't care.

The truth. Wolfgang stared straight into her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to speak the truest words he knew.

 

"If I told you the whole truth..."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is by far the stupidest, most fun thing I've ever written. Thank you to everyone who read it.


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